As is well known, common toilets are shaped in such a way that structurally comprise a bowl consisting of a body with a central hollow round or oblong hole, with an internal trap that discharges into a base fixed to the floor, where the exit of the trap is connected to the sanitary drainage network, said bowl comprises an upper tank where a volume of water is deposited, which is connected through a duct to said bowl, wherein said ducts comprise a ball-cock supply valve with actuating means for discharging water into the bowl.
A water supply duct from a water supply source of a domestic or public supply network connects directly into the water storage upper tank comprising a control bypass valve; wherein said tank includes valve means controlled by a float element to control the water volume to be stored and downloaded to the toilet, so as to dislodge urine and/or feces.
The toilet bowl hole comprises some orifices in the rear portion, where attachment means for a swinging lid and seat that cover the hole are located, the lid and seat are disposed over the hole for hygienic reasons, in order to prevent the user from direct contact with the toilet surface, as well as to provide greater comfort to the user.
The bowl's covering lid consists of a solid body in a similar shape to the hole (round or oblong) and the seat has an annular or elliptical shape that follows the contour of the bowl hole, some seats are also shaped like a horseshoe. Said seat is used so that people sit on it and avoid the direct contact with the bowl surface; in some cases the seat is padded for comfort, while the lid allows the user to cover the bowl hole.
When a female person uses the toilet, she usually tends to lift the lid with her hands or with at least one hand, which can lead to contamination, poor hygiene, etc..
As for a male person, is the traditional problems are well-known, such as when a man who is trying to urinate (if he has a good manners) lifts both the lid and the seat with his hand(s) to avoid splashing the seat with urine and keep the seat clean, with the sanitary implications already indicated due to the direct contact of the hand with the lid and seat, but in many cases men, when the lid is covering the bowl hole, lift only the lid, or if the lid is already lifted, they do not lift the seat, such that when they urinate they splash and wet the seat with urine, causing displeasure in other users of the toilet and causing contamination of the lid that could be a source of infection for other users.
In the prior art, various hydraulic and pneumatic mechanisms and mechanical devices were found that are designed to lift the toilet lid and/or seat, for example PA/a/2001/006808 Mexican patent application to Jaime Barrios Gomez Garibay, of Jul. 2, 2001, which seeks to protect a mechanism for lifting the lid of toilets indirectly and without the use of hands, that comprises a hydraulic system with two plastic valves, one of which is disposed on the floor and the other one of which is disposed below the ring-shaped or horseshoe-shaped lower plastic lid, covering the upper surface of the toilet bowl; both valves being interconnected through a high pressure hose, the valve provided on the floor being of a round pouch shape with convex upper surface, which houses a certain amount of liquid inside; while the valve disposed below the ring-shaped or horseshoe-shaped lower plastic lid is a cylinder with an inner piston or an accordion-type bellows shape.
We found the patent application GB 2376475 (A) to Moran Lynn and Murphy Darly of Dec. 18, 2002, which seeks to protect a mechanism to lift the seat 6 and lid 7, designed to be fitted to standard toilets, which is driven to lift the lid and seat in response to the pressing of a foot-operated pedal 4 surrounding the bottom of the toilet bowl; there is a metal casing 3 which houses the drive mechanism 5 to lift said lid 7 and seat 6, that consists of rods and levers.
We found the utility model PA/u/2005/000273, grant number MX1636 to David Herrera Gurrola, issued on Dec. 18, 2006, which protects a device for raising and lowering a toilet seat, the device generally comprises a rotation shaft placed under the toilet seat and is attached to or makes contact with the same; a lever attached to the rotation shaft and moved by a user so as to transmit its movement to the rotation shaft, which being attached to the seat or making contact with it, achieves the desired motion of ascent or descent of the seat, the rotation shaft that is housed on channels or ducts of the existing hinges formed by the lid, the seat and the toilet hinge brackets or is housed along a housing provided on a support base fixed to the mounting orifices located in the back part of the toilet ring.
We also found Mexican patent application document Pa/a/2006/012503 to Mark Anthony Dercksen and Johannes Gideon Francois Johannes, which seeks the protection of a foot-operated seat lift for a hydraulic toilet that may be easily installed on a toilet; the universal bracket with a retained cylinder and piston is mounted to the toilet bowl using the existing toilet seat fasteners; the toilet seat lift is activated by foot pressure applied to the pedal, which in turn opens a valve to deliver water pressure from the existing toilet water supply to the cylinder and piston.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,291,422 to John J. Shoemaker and Kenneth R. Stark, of Sep. 29, 1981, was also found. This patent discloses a device for raising and lowering the lid and seat members of a toilet comprising a pair of independent hydraulic systems, operatively associated to one of the toilet members (lid or seat). Each hydraulic system includes a manually operable control valve, a hydraulic cylinder having a water inlet/connection port disposed on each of its distal and medium ends that operatively connect the piston rod of the cylinder with the member (lid or seat) associated to the toilet. Each member of the toilet (lid or seat) can be controlled with a hydraulic system associated with a control valve that directs water to one of the ports of the cylinder, while the other port that moves the piston rod in a first direction receives water from the extractor moving the toilet member (lid or seat) rotationally in one direction. In operation, the toilet member lowers the control valve to reverse the cylinder ports that receive and deplete the water that makes the piston rod move in a second direction such that the rotating toilet member is moved on the other direction.
None of the found documents protects or discloses a hydraulic drive device for automatically raising and lowering the toilet covering lid and seat that uses the same fluid source that is used to fill the toilet tank and to dislodge the excreta down the drain, wherein said device is of a simple structure, is easily installed and easily operated, and that can be actuated by sensors or by hand-operated or foot-operated buttons.
Moreover, in the patent application MX/a/2009/005262 to Carlo Gomez Espana Collignon (same inventor and applicant of this application) (the “Parent Application”) presents a hydraulic actuating device for raising and lowering the covering lid and seat of a toilet, which is intended to protect a device that can be triggered by sensors and manually pressing pedals with the feet or hands, wherein said device comprises a casing having two adjoining hollow chambers, a left and a right, the cameras house a left rotating shaft and a right rotating shaft, respectively, both shafts fixedly comprise a counterweight that can rotate with the shaft inside the chambers; each chamber also houses an elastic diaphragm (left and right), adjoining and interacting with the counterweights; said diaphragms comprising at least one connecting pivot where a supply duct and/or output of working fluid is connected, so as to drive the counterweights when the chambers are inflated with working fluid supplied by an automatic system or in response to the actuation of contact elements to cause the rotation of said shafts connected to a lid and seat of a toilet, respectively, and which further comprises a left connecting rim and a right connecting rim at the rear of the bowl, each rim having orifices through which are inserted a left fixing bolt and a right one that is fixed at the ends of the rotary shafts with the corresponding counterweights.
A further embodiment of said device is one that comprises a system for the supply of working fluid to the diaphragms with contact elements, comprising a distributor element disposed in the rear of the bowl, directly connected to the main water supply duct into the toilet tank, a first left supply duct and a right supply duct connected to said distributor and left and right valves for actuation with the foot or hand, respectively, arranged on the floor next to the toilet; a second left distribution duct and a second right distribution duct connected from the corresponding left and right foot actuation valves, up to the distributor element in communication with a third left supply duct and a third right supply duct, which emerge from the distributor element and connect to a first upper pivot of the corresponding left and right diaphragms; fourth left and right discharge ducts connected to a second pivot of the corresponding left and right diaphragms, the distributor element for discharging water from said diaphragms, and a main discharge duct connected from the distributor element into the toilet water tank, comprising at its end a valve with a pressure device which opens when the tank is discharged due to the pressure differential, allowing the water to discharge from the system.
It is in this embodiment where the improvement of the present application is focused, seeking to make the operation more efficient, and to reduce the number of elements in the distributor, as well as reducing the number of connections and size of the distributors and actuating elements.
Said device is novel and represents inventive activity, as the same has been designed and developed after substantial testing, development, research, investment of financial resources, personnel and supplies, that have resulted in the device which we believe is novel, because there are not any documents that disclose its existence and neither may be deduced from the combination of information from the found documents, so that it complies with inventive activity.